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Baruch College freshman Chun "Michael" Deng died in 2013 from multiple traumatic injuries he sustained during fraternity hazing. Chun "Michael" Deng grew up in Queens, New York, as an only child in a first-generation immigrant family from China. The outgoing teenager excelled in academics and athletics and was very close to his family, said family attorney Doug Fierberg. Deng decided to stay in New York City for college, enrolling at Baruch College, which is part of the City University of New York. But on the morning of Dec. 8, 2013, as his first semester of freshman year drew to a close, his mother, Mary Deng, got the unexpected call that her son had been rushed to a Pennsylvania hospital with traumatic injuries. The next day, Michael Deng was dead. Baruch College student Chun "Michael" Deng died following a fraternity initiation ritual. Handout Unbeknownst to Mary Deng, her son was pledging the Asian-American fraternity Pi Delta Psi at Baruch. Police sai...

University of Idaho quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger is due back in an Idaho courtroom on Thursday. University of Idaho quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger is due back in a Latah County, Idaho, court room on Thursday. The 28-year-old faces first-degree murder and burglary charges and has not yet entered a plea. MORE: Idaho college murders: Timeline of events Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30 in his home state of Pennsylvania in connection to the quadruple murder s that captivated the nation. Kohberger, a Ph.D. student in Washington State University's department of criminal justice and criminology at the time, was visiting his family in Pennsylvania for the holidays. Bryan Kohberger who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, looks toward his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, right, during a hearing in Latah County District Court, Jan. 5, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Ted S. Warren/AP A law enforcement source told ABC News that federal...

Extreme drought fell from 27.1% last week to 0.32% in the numbers released Thursday. Extreme drought, the second-highest level of drought, has been nearly eliminated in the state of California in the wake of storms caused by atmospheric rivers slamming the state over the last several weeks. However, the extreme influx of moisture was contained to west of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which does little to alleviate the dwindling water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the country. Drought has nearly been eliminated in California. ABC News Extreme drought in California fell from 27.1% last week to 0.32% in the numbers released Thursday, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Severe drought , the third-highest level, fell from 71% to 46%. The week prior, parts of California and Nevada that were previously in exceptional drought status no longer qualified for the highest level of concern due to the extra moisture. MORE: California storms wreak havoc: ...

Dangerous avalanche conditions are expected through the weekend in Colorado, experts warned, as the state has reported several deadly avalanches so far this season. Dangerous avalanche conditions are expected through the weekend in Colorado, experts warned, as the state has reported several deadly avalanches so far this season. "We have seen more avalanches this year than we do during a typical year, and recently they’ve gotten much bigger," Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said in a statement Thursday. "We want everyone to enjoy the wonderful public lands in Colorado, and go home alive and well to their family and friends on Monday." The Colorado Avalanche Information Center posted this photo commenting on dangerous avalanche conditions after two fatal avalanche accidents on Feb. 14, 2021. Colorado Avalanche Information Center Early-season snowfall, followed by heavy snow in early December and early January, has created dangerous...

The U.S. Department of the Interior has renamed five places in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas that previously included a racist term for a Native American woman The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it has given new names to five places that previously included a racist term for a Native American woman. The renamed sites are in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, completing a yearlong process to remove the historically offensive word “squaw” from geographic names across the country. “Words matter, particularly in our work to ensure our nation’s public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. She called the word “harmful.” Haaland, who took office in 2021, is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency. In September, the Interior Department announced its final vote on proposals to change the names of nearly 650 sites that contained the word. The...

A slain child at the center of one of Philadelphia's oldest cold cases now has his name on a grave marker PHILADELPHIA -- Patty Braxton grimaced as a priest led a few dozen mourners in prayer on a gray, drizzly Friday beside the grave of a small boy found dead in 1957 and long dubbed “America's Unknown Child” or the “Boy in the Box.” Her father, retired Philadelphia Detective Thomas Joseph Augustine, worked the high-profile cold case most of his career. The family lived down the street from the potter's field where the boy was first buried, and placed flowers there on holidays. But Augustine died in October, just six weeks before advances in DNA and online genealogy records would yield the child's name. So Braxton, her sister and their families stood in his place Friday at Ivy Hill Cemetery as investigators who spent decades on the case unveiled a new gravestone bearing the boy's name — Joseph Augustus Zarelli — on what would have been the battered child's...

Baltimore's new top prosecutor has dropped all charges against a Black man who stood trial four times for the same killing, freeing him after seven years in custody BALTIMORE -- Baltimore’s new top prosecutor dropped all charges Friday against a Black man who stood trial four times for the same killing, freeing him from behind bars and ending a controversial case that repeatedly raised questions about police and prosecutorial conduct. Keith Davis Jr. was accused of fatally shooting Pimlico Race Course security guard Kevin Jones in 2015, after police claimed his gun matched casings from the shooting scene. Before arresting Davis, officers shot him multiple times, leaving him badly wounded. He survived and has maintained his innocence ever since. Newly elected Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, who took office Jan. 3, announced Friday that charges were being dropped . “Today’s dismissal is about the prosecutorial missteps of my predecessor in her pursuit of a conviction at all c...

Officials in Boston unveiled a sculpture commemorating Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. Nearly 60 years after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed thousands on the Boston Common, city officials unveiled a sculpture commemorating the civil rights leader and his wife, Coretta Scott King. The bronze sculpture, which is 20 feet tall and 40 feet wide, is the largest monument in the U.S. dedicated to racial equity and is located in the town where the couple first met. King was studying as a doctoral student in theology at Boston University when he met Coretta, who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. "Boston became the place where they forged a partnership that would change America and make a powerful contribution to the Black freedom struggle. That's what I see in this beautiful monument," said Martin Luther King III, son of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the unveiling. People stand near the 20-foot-high bronze sculpture ...

A 9-year-old boy whose father was in jail on a drug charge died under the custody of the Arizona child welfare agency FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- Richard Blodgett, a single father, was jailed on a drug charge when a worker from Arizona's child welfare agency delivered the news: His son was brain dead and on life support — just days after being taken into state custody. Blodgett screamed, cried and screamed some more. Jakob was his only son, a “darn cute," curious 9-year-old who loved remote control cars and video Game s. Blodgett is now struggling to understand how it happened. A medical examiner listed Jakob's death in late December as natural with complications from diabetes, a condition he was diagnosed with as a toddler. Specifically, Type 1 diabetes, which means his body was unable to produce enough insulin to survive. Blodgett said he suspects the Arizona Department of Child Safety failed in its duty to protect his son, either by not monitoring his blood sugar levels or no...